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THE All Progressives Congress has named Lagos as the venue of its December 10 presidential primary. Eight thousand delegates are expected to participate in the convention, scheduled to hold at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. The APC four other presidential aspirants –former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, and Leadership Newspaper publisher, Sam Nda-Isaiah – had jointly asked for a venue outside Lagos, said to be favoured by Buhari and a former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu. Atiku and the three others wrote the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, on Nov 27, “advising” the party chairman to retain Abuja as the convention venue. But the APC convention committee, led by ex-Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, ignored the subtle protest by the presidential aspirants and on Wednesday announced the choice of Lagos as replacement for Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory. Fayemi explained that his committee had been able to convince all the aspirants on the suitability of the new venue while noting their concerns about logistics. The four aspirants had, in the protest letter, argued that Abuja was more centrally located and easily accessible to delegates from all over the nation. In the letter, the aspirants observed that the proposed choice of Lagos as possible venue for the presidential primaries was not convenient.The letter partly read, “We the under-listed presidential aspirants of the APC, having noted the clash of date of 10th December for APC and PDP National Convention/Presidential Primaries wish to advise as follows: “That Abuja as centre remains the best, convenient and most accepted to all. “That, our party has paid for the Eagle Square for the 7th and 8th December for presidential primaries, which now is dated for Federal House/Senate primaries. “That, the presidential primaries be retained for the 7th and 8th as scheduled, while the National Assembly primaries since we have nothing to harvest from PDP president primaries as their candidate is already known. “That, the proposed choice of Lagos as a possible venue for the presidential primaries is not convenient for all. “We therefore advise that our party reverts to Abuja as the venue.” It was learnt that as of Tuesday, it was agreed in principle that Benin, the Edo State capital, be chosen since the national leadership of the party had argued strongly in favour of retaining the December 10 date. A source in the party, who pleaded anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, said, “The aspirants are afraid that Lagos, being the home of a strong supporter of Buhari will give the person he is supporting an edge over others because the issue of accommodation and other logistics will be easier for them (Buhari’s camp) to address.” But another source said the fears being expressed by aspirants about the venue were not unfounded. The source said, “There is news making the rounds that a certain leader of the party has booked most of the decent hotels in Lagos. “The leader in question is working assiduously in favour of a particular aspirant, as such, having delegates within his reach at the last minute could alter earlier projections.” According to the source, Benin was earlier considered because “the heartbeat of the nation” would serve the dual role of marketing the party as a truly national party and not a metamorphosis of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria as well as selling the party to the electorate in the South-South. It was, however, gathered that the party leadership picked Lagos because Benin lacked the facilities and security capability to take care of the huge crowd expected at the convention. Fayemi told journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday that there was nothing sinister about the choice of Lagos. According to him, the party, especially his committee, is more concerned about the process than the product. He said, “For us, it is not who emerges at the end of the day. They are all competent. They all have agenda and they all will implement the manifesto of our party. It is how we get there. “We have not taken any decision without the input of all the presidential aspirants, l can assure you of that. We did not arrive at Lagos accidentally; we arrived at Lagos with the full input of all our presidential aspirants. “Those concerns were raised about the distance, for example for somebody coming from Yobe as delegate or Maiduguru, those are practical issues and we would have been surprised if the aspirants didn’t raise such issues.”

SOURCE:
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